OF SHOOTING AND FISHING = 103 
particular place a great number of Clark’s Nut- 
crackers (Nuifraga Columbiana). They were very 
noisy and restless, and perhaps thirty or forty of 
them were congregated in a few pines growing 
on arather bold promontory. They had grey heads 
and jet black wings, and formed an animated group 
for a while. After a time, in twos and threes, they 
took headers into the deep canyon and were seen 
no more. These birds often close their wings and 
drop straight down many hundred feet, then, open- 
ing them, they check themselves for a moment, 
to drop again until they reach their drinking 
place. They live among the high pines and eat 
the seeds off the cones: Their nests are rarely 
found, as they breed early in the season when the 
winter snows have made their haunts almost inac- 
cessible. 
After lunch we started our downward march, 
backwards and forwards through the forest, going 
always lower. We travelled for several hours, fi- 
nally emerging from the timber on a treeless slope 
many hundred feet above the ford we had to cross. 
From this point down we had a zigzag path. As 
we approached the river we saw that it came from 
an impassable box canyon above, and emptied into 
the main river a few miles below. Our horses had 
enough to do to keep their feet crossing, as the cur- 
rent on the ford was strong and the bottom rough, 
being strewn with huge stones. : 
There was a ranch on the left bank of the river, 
and near the house were two good sheeps’ heads. 
Seeing the man in charge, I asked him about them 
